1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital broadcast receiving and recording apparatus for receiving a multiplexed broadcast signal including a plurality of channels each having at least one subchannel, outputting to a display such as a television receiver, and recording video data and audio data generated based on the broadcast signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, a very large number of channels of digital broadcasts are provided; for example, 100 channels or more of digital broadcasts called ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) system are provided in North America. Among the channels, one physical channel (simply, channel) may be made up of a plurality of subchannels, and programs on a plurality of subchannels may be broadcast in the same time period in one channel.
Upon reception of the digital broadcast signal of the selected channel, a digital broadcast receiving and recording apparatus demodulates the digital broadcast signal to digital data and then decodes the digital data by a decoder, converts into an analog video signal and an analog audio signal, and outputs the analog video signal and the analog audio signal to an analog television receiver.
The digital broadcast receiving and recording apparatus includes recording means for recording the provided digital data on a magnetic record medium such as a hard disk, an optical disk, or the like and records the data following a record command of a user. To give the record command, the user can press a record button of a controller such as a remote controller, while any desired program is being broadcast or can program the apparatus to record any desired program by setting the channel number, the record start time, and the record end time based on a program guide, and when the preset start time is reached, recording of the program is started and when the preset end time is reached, recording of the program is ended.
However, if a large number of broadcast channels exist and one channel contains a plurality of subchannels as described above, the user might want to record only the necessary channel of the plurality of subchannels of his or her own will.
However, the digital broadcast receiving and recording apparatus in the related art records programs on all subchannels contained in the channel in one recording. Thus, programs on unnecessary subchannels are also recorded. When the record time becomes long, if programs on unnecessary subchannels are also recorded, the use capacity of the record medium becomes enormous and the record capacity is wasted.
Hitherto, various arts of digital broadcast receiving and recording apparatus have been designed including those disclosed in JP-A-2001-169194, JP-A-2002-176400, but a method of solving the problem as described above is not disclosed.